The Legacy of Genghis Khan: Courtly Art and Culture in Western Asia, 1256-1353 by Linda Komaroff and Stefano Carboni
folio. pp. xiv, 322. profusely illustrated. bibliography. index. hardcover. dw. (fine condition). New Haven: Yale University Press in association with The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, [2002].
Published in conjunction with an exhibition.
ISBN-10: 0300096917 / ISBN-13: 9780300096910
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In the thirteenth century, under the leadership of Genghis Khan, nomadic horsemen burst out of Mongolia and began their sweep across Asia, creating the largest empire the world has ever known. Particularly in China and Iran (Persia), the results were far-reaching: the Mongols imposed enormous changes but were also influenced by the highly developed civilizations of their new subjects. During the century they ruled Iran-the period of the Ilkhanid dynasty (1256 to 1353)-the Mongols adopted Islam and sponsored a brilliant cultural flowering that encompassed many branches of the arts and transformed local Persian artistic traditions.
This splendid volume, which focuses on the Ilkhans and their culture, features some two hundred extraordinary objects in color, including manuscript paintings and illuminations, ceramic tiles, metalwork, and textiles. Essays by eight eminent scholars provide the historical and political background and address such subjects as the art of the book, religious art, and the transmission of designs across Asia.
This book is the catalogue of a major exhibition on view at The Metropolitan Museum of Art from November 5, 2002, to February 16, 2003, and at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art from April 13 to July 27, 2003.